RAY VAN CAMARO

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The hut Abel supposedly teleported to was a long walk outside the village. It was on the other side of the ravine—hidden off almost as if it were observing Gilead.

“What are we looking for exactly?” Gama asked as he peeped through a window.

“Anything that looks suspicious.” With no warning, I burst the door open with a kick. “We’re investigating, Private. We’re not supposed to know what we’re looking for.”

“So let me just clear this up. You and General Clegane suspect the guy they found because he’s an adventurer and he doesn’t match the symptoms Doira has?”

“Yeah, that’s all we have on him. There hasn’t been an incident like this in written history. This is the first time a beam of light has materialized, hit a village, and made everyone in it disappear.”

“There’s a first time for everything.”

“There is, but the first time for something like this should’ve happened out in the wilderness. When mana gathers to make a labyrinth, it does it outside of settlements, not above them.”

The hut was a twisted and rundown building. It was just big enough to house one person. The floor cried every time any semblance of weight was put on it. Certain areas reeked of mildew, mold, and decaying carcasses.

We tore the place apart, going through the miscellaneous books on the shelf, rotten rations in the kitchen, and cheap cracked furniture strewn about the place. All that to find nothing of note.

Other than the hut looking suspicious and creepy, it was completely normal.

There has to be a correlation between why Abel was sent here with nearly broken gates and Doira to Crimson Bay completely fine.

“There’s a latrine pit.” Rudolf nudged Gama. “You should do the honours and search it.”

Gama put him in a chokehold. “Shut up about that!”

“Okay, I’m sorry. Chokehold is illegal!”

“I’m still not forgiving the colonel for that. You hear that, Colonel”

I put on my white glove. “I hear you, Private.”

Kaiser crossed his arms, nodding his head. “You think there’s something there?”

“It’s the one place we haven’t searched.”

“No one sane person is going to hide anything there.”

“No sane person will look,” I corrected.

Snapping my fingers, I summoned four of my Marching Dolls and had them stab the latrine pit with their rapiers, breaking the wooden cover before digging through the pile of feces.

Hendrik plugged his nose. “It stinks.”

“This is giving me bad nostalgia,” Gama gagged.

The dolls continued to dig with their swords until one of them stabbed something that was less dense than the ground. After cleaning off this item, we noticed that it was a book made up of tied-up pages and no cover. It was protected in a layer of thick cloth.

After flipping through its pages, we discovered that it was a cookbook. Each page was filled with notes and instructions on how to cook different types of dishes from areas of Armestis. On some pages, there were familiar jynx symbols used for aesthetics and random lines sketched about.

“Looks like someone really wanted to keep their family recipes a secret,” Gama giggled.

We didn’t bother cleaning up the mess and headed to the closest village along the Mizu River—which was Azura.

Any settlement along the river had a booming economy in the export of goods. Finding a ship that would take the five of us to Port Town would be easy. Though convincing them Tank would behave was a different story.

None of the ships were used to mainly transport passengers. Instead, they were used to transport products. The captain of each ship got to decide if they wanted to board any passengers. They also got to decide the fare.

The Mizu River was a highway for ships. Because of this, pirates would sail along it pretending to be regular ships in search of vessels to raid.

Since we were soldiers and I was a State Jynxist, the fares we were offered were cheaper than usual. We would be able to hold our weight with chores and protect the ship if we were attacked. The hardest part was convincing the captain that Tank was a gentle giant.

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The two-week sail to Port Town went smoothly for the most part. The only rock in the road we came across was when a storm passed. The waters were too rocky and the captain had us anchor down in the middle of the river to wait out the storm.

Once it passed, we noticed damages on the ship that had us dock near a forest for repairs. During this, a band of mercenaries approached us on land and made conversation. The captain seemed threatened by these travellers, so my unit and I introduced ourselves as soldiers and myself a State Jynxist, summoning about twenty dolls behind us. They rode off rather quickly after our little show.

Other than that, our trip was smooth sailing.

Once we landed at Port Town’s dock, we said our thanks and headed straight for the keep.

Contrary to its name, Port Town was actually a thriving city. It started off as a town, but when its population and territory grew, no one bothered to correct the name, and so it stuck.

Port Town was split between both sides of the estuary that connected the Mizu River to Crimson Bay. Above the estuary was a bridge that connected both sides of the city.

As close a friend I was with the brigadier in jurisdiction of this place, this was the first time I had the chance to come here.

Port Town was made out of brick and mortar, though the rooves of the buildings were protected by a layer of straw. Any iron used on bars, windows, or buildings had a line of rust running to the ground.

Port Town had about five times as many soldiers patrolling the streets. Since this was one of the only two entrances to the Mizu River from the open sea, there were many smugglers and pirates trying to get through. This place was also a frequent target of attacks, averaging five large-sized battles a year.

The keep was on the northern side of the town and we were taken to Czeslaw, who was playing chess with an almost nude cat woman in his office.

“This is very professional,” I told him.

“What the—” Czeslaw stood up. “Ray? What’s up with the sudden visit? You couldn’t have written to me first.”

The last time we saw each other was when he was still working under Pops at Seraphim. About two years after I was given jurisdiction over Gilead, he was promoted to being in charge of Port Town.

Nothing about him had changed. He still had a shaved head, no facial hair, and his familiar green eyes were something I missed seeing. And it seemed he was still a womanizer.

“I’m here to talk to you,” I told him. “Direct orders from your grandfather.”

He scratched his head. “The Old Man sent you? Why did neither of you write?”

“That’s what I’m here to talk about.” I then ordered my unit to wait outside. “Alone.”

He nodded, turning to the cat woman. “Chris, just give us a moment, will you?”

She sighed irritatingly and took her leave with my unit.

“Why was the cat lady only wearing short pants and a bra?”

“Nothing was happening this time,” he cleared his throat. “That’s just how she likes to dress up. She actually had bigger breasts, she got them reduced so her body can be more aerodynamic.”

“Now that just sounds like you’re making things up.” I let a moment pass. “And nothing was happening that time? I see that you’re still scum.”

He pulled me into a hug. “Ahhhh! Long time no see, Ray! It’s been ten years since we last saw each other! By the way, did you receive my letter? I don’t know how, but—”

“We did. Pops and I.”

“The Old Man? What was he doing in Gilead?”

“Let’s just say Lieutenant Doira was telling the truth. There was a beam of light, but I wasn’t in Gilead at the time. Once Pops saw it, he raced over to investigate.”

Czeslaw sat down quietly. He didn’t believe that everyone he knew growing up was gone. But he knew there was no lie coming from me. “So Trisha, her son, and your daughter are missing?”

“Yes, and Pops and I believe foul play is somehow involved. We found someone who claims he’s an adventurer that was caught up in the beam of light and teleported to a nearby hut. But things don’t add up.”

“Who knows about this beam of light incident?”

“Any settlement five hundred kilometres from Gilead. Pops had ordered them to keep quiet about it for now.”

“A conspiracy? This is a very dangerous thing you’re playing with, Ray. If you do find something someone’s trying to hide, what do you think will happen?”

“Were you not listening? Trisha is gone. So is her son and my daughter. And everyone in Gilead—a town I was entrusted to protect. Finding the truth is the least I can do.”

“Okay, I understand. I’ll help.” He put both hands on my shoulder. “Who else knows you and the Old Man are suspecting a conspiracy?”

“Just us two, my unit, and you now. We don’t trust anyone else.”

“And you think Lieutenant Doria has answers?”

“Not all, but her point of view might reveal things we’ve missed. I picked her to be in my unit and she was caught up in the beam of light. I’d trust her words over some random adventurer.”

Before Czeslaw and I visited the dungeons, he moved a couple of his pieces on the board to suit the game in his favour.

He hasn’t changed.

The dungeons were overstocked with hardened criminals. Each cell had about seven or so prisoners locked away, all eyeing us as we walked past them. In the innermost cell, by herself was Doria, who was doing push-ups.

“Lieutenant, it’s your lucky day,” Czeslaw said.

“How so, Brigadier?” she asked, continuing her workout without averting her eyes. “If you believe me, I’ll consider that lucky.”

“It looks like it is your lucky day because I brought someone who does.” He unlocked the door.

Doria finally looked up, running out of the cell to give me a hug. Czeslaw had to stop the guards accompanying us to not seize her.

“Colonel,” Doria said. “You have to believe me. I would never desert you. There was this beam of light—”

“It’s okay. I believe you.”

“You do?”

“Yes, I was in Rockbell when the beam of light hit. I saw everything.”

She pressed her teary face against my chest. “It was so scary, Colonel. I’ve been confused these last couple of weeks.”

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. You’re fine now. You’re back with us.”

“Jaime, Ilias, and Trisha? What happened to them? What did the beam of light do?”

“Let’s clean you up and get you back into a uniform first,” I said. “Then let’s put what we both know together and dig deeper into this thing.”